Salvation

The Battle of Broken Chains

It all comes down to this.

4

AUG/17

Lorday, 13 Newbirth, 6935 EY: Before the battle, Moras is scolded by Haseya for strongarming her into believing something that she doesn't. Misae further reprimands Moras for being an "idiot," but agrees to help him get back into Haseya's good graces. After explaining himself to Haseya and apologizing, she cools considerably.

As troops are rallied and begin to move forward into battle, Zafar commands the armies and strengthens their morale with a speech. At the climax of his speech, he is interrupted by obnoxious buzzing noises coming from the frontlines—the Library of Sjet is ready for its visitors.

The Battle of Broken Chains progresses with many losses on both sides, but midway through the battle the tides begin to turn in a devastating way. Zafar, Haseya, Ga Jakadi, Taegon and the Shining Zultan prove to be invaluable assets, while Tomren's justicar prowess completely shut down an entire regiment of mages allowing for a swift victory to be secured. No major allies died, but many were wounded, including Eskandar losing an eye, Ga Jakadi losing a wing, and Kamaria and Standing Bear receiving ghastly scars.

The Pathseekers then infiltrated the Electrum Palace to deal a final blow to the zultanate. They are aided by Krystof, Emanaya and Moras to help defeat Spada Darice il-Kassem, who reveals herself to actually be Daratharna, an adult black dragon. This proves to be the most challenging fight of the day, with the group nearly not surviving it. In the end, it was Moras who slew the dragon, but was disappointed to find out the group was unconscious and did not witness it.

The group pushed on to find Melchoir, the Dervish Spada. They were accompanied by Ga Jakadi, Matilda Greenburrow, and Thunder. This battle ended quickly and poorly for the dervish spada, with Haseya administering the final blow via a scorpion stinger.

The next room held Zafar, Eskandar and Aya Darius recovering from an intense battle. The aya healed the group and then Zafar encouraged them to go on to the final encounter with the zultan.

The final encounter was anticlimactic. In this room they found the zultan along with Standing Bear, Kamaria, and Taeron, the Shining Zultan. Taeron wasted no time and destroyed the zultan in a single crippling blow, reducing the man to a pile of sand. Taeron teased the idea of taking the throne for himself, but eventually disappeared, saying he was "going home."

The battle was then won at last—the Butterfly had taken Bratana.

Arday, 14 Newbirth, 6935 EY – Ceremonies to commemorate the new zultana as well as awards occurred on this day. Kamaria was to be crowned the zultana, but she halted it, instead saying that Mitra deserved the crown. Mitra declined as well, but it was insisted upon her, and Mitra became the new zultana. The Pathseekers were granted noble titles as well as precious heirlooms from the vaults of the zultan to aid them in their future endeavors.

There was a party where Narida, Arnold, and B4P played celebration music and everyone danced and got drunk. Krystof lost a drinking contest to Matilda. Kamaria attempted to hook up with Taegon but was politely turned away. Eskandar was ignored completely and got annoyed by it. Standing Bear acted like a wallflower but chatted with Misae and explained that he was simply unused to people actually having fun, and he was having his own sort of fun just watching and admiring the fact that these people could smile for the first time. Taegon learned from Darius that there were many more battles to be fought to secure peace in Bratana as a resistance movement had already begun to form against the new zultana. Taegon suggested diplomacy over warfare. Taegon then spoke to Ga Jakadi, who had sobering news—while his troops helped in the Battle of Broken Chains, the Sand Circle attacked Karamezra and killed every gyppa there, and smashed every egg. Ga Jakadi needed calmed down as he blamed the Pathseekers for this, but once he was calmed the group made it clear the Sand Circle would pay. Haseya spoke to Moras about this. She became overwhelmed with emotion, and Moras held her as she expressed herself. Moras promised to speak with Archdruid Throg and that a tribunal would be held to deliver justice onto the Sand Circle.

Finally, Taegon and Misae danced together, and Misae finished it with a kiss on the cheek to Taegon. She explained that she "didn't want to be outdone" by Kamaria, and Taegon replied that, "she didn't need to kiss him to outdo Kamaria." Taken aback and embarassed, Misae quickly left. Narida, Arnold and Haseya converged on Taegon and Haseya let him know that Misae had feelings for him. Arnold and Narida both assurred Taegon that they had his back in this—although Arnold did it in his usual crass sort of way.

The group now plans on finally going to the Library of Sjet to find the answers they originally sought to find.